After taking a course on Contemporary Native issues and doing a case study on
the Oka crisis, I came to the decision that "Indian Justice" is an oxuymoron
aw stuff I've encountered in the past few years seems designed to either
perturb or divert Native action or just fuel the great legal/business machine
and their allied bureaucrats in the Fed Gov. After a conference on repat-
riation last year, a Native friend and I talked to a prominent Native lawyer
who looked us both square in the eyes and said, "Boys, don't *ever*become
lawyers!" That was good enough for me, so now I'm turning my attention to
studying law and the concepts of human rights, land rights, indigenous rights,
and every other right except right turns) as rhetorical devices and as
epistemological devices emerging from particular historical/cultural contests.
We need to stop writing laws and start asking what do laws do, and can we take
action without having to kowtow to the legal edifice?
Answers are welcome.
Best regards,
John H. Stevens
University of Massachusetts at Boston
8859JSTEV@umbsky.cc.umb.edu